Community Highlights: Meet Jackson Cummings of Liminality Media

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jackson Cummings.

Jackson, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
It’s kind of a roundabout story so buckle in. I’m the youngest of four and grew up in a sports family so I was always the sports guy my whole life. Baseball was my main sport and I honestly didn’t see myself doing anything else. Then, during my junior year of high school, I was playing for the varsity team and – for whatever reason – I realized I just wasn’t having fun anymore. So I texted my parents, told them I was quitting that day, and quit. Not long after, I saw a casting call for Advanced Theatre Arts and thought “hey why not?” I memorized a monologue for the first time, went to auditions, and got in. From there, I found a deep love and passion for acting. The plan was to do the whole Hollywood thing right out of high school but I felt the Lord calling me to Bible school. I knew I wanted to be solid in my relationship with Christ before tackling a beast like Hollywood so I packed my stuff, flew to Austria, and lived there for 3 months at a Bible school called Tauernhof. It was there that the Lord actually called me into preaching the Bible and I remember telling Him immediately “You’re gonna have to do a ton of work on my heart.” And what I meant was that if He’s calling me into preaching the Bible, that means I don’t get to boast in myself. It’s not about me. And that’s what I loved about acting. And so over the course of the next 8 years, He worked and worked and chiseled things away on my heart while I lived in Portland at a Christian University, while my life was thrown up in the air and I threw everything away to reset and heal by working at Hume Christian Camps, while meeting my wife, and while ushering me into deep healing living in Spain and India and getting to a point where I just want the credit to go to the Lord and to set captives free. Meanwhile, I thought He had said no to this dream of being in the industry. Yet somehow within that time I found myself in a couple commercials, the lead in a huge play, and even met Fred Wolf who – after hearing my story – asked for me to send him life updates every once in awhile because he was intrigued with my story (which I should probably send him another one). So there were all these things sprinkled into my time that kept this spark alive. But it wasn’t really until summer 2022 that I started to really pursue this passion. My wife and I had moved to Sequoia National Forest a year prior to work at Hume Christian camps but nothing was working out for me. I was isolated and eventually got to a point where I felt like if I didn’t create, I was going to explode. So I called up my cousin – who is also an actor – and asked if he wanted to write a screenplay. We wrote a 35 page script in 6 hours and it just took off from there. Just a couple weeks ago we got our first selection for a film festival. But that sparked something in me to start trying to do this thing even from an isolated mountaintop. I realized how much more deeply I’m passionate about directing and telling my own stories. I had always dreamed that “one day” I’ll have my own production company that tells REAL, raw, gritty stories with the goal of allowing a certain demographic to feel seen and to understand the Lord’s heart a bit more. I didn’t know that would come so quickly. I started Liminality Media at the end of 2023 and it wasn’t until this year that I honed in on helping Christian actors get on professional sets so they can just love on cast and crew, sit with them in pain, encourage them, etc. The goal is to take the profits from the company, make films, and create a liminal space for the audience where they exit their world and enter a state of liminality where more hope and more Christ can be deposited into their hearts and they can walk into a new world. And I’m not talking about the Christian films that are out there. Life isn’t that easy. I’d love to tell rated R stories about real struggles, real wrestling with the Lord, and really diving into His heart for people in these situations. Anyway, short story long, I probably answered a million questions in one.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Ha. No. Definitely not smooth. I thought I was going to go straight to Hollywood out of high school. Instead I went to Austria and studied the Bible, thought God said no to this dream, went to major in pastoral ministry in Portland, dealt with crippling depression and battling suicidal thoughts, had to confront trauma, lived in Spain and India, moved to the middle of nowhere in Sequoia National Forest and started a production company there (which I don’t recommend), shot some projects there, dealt with incredible self-doubt and imposter syndrome, and THEN just recently moved to LA. I’m so grateful for it not being smooth, though. Can you imagine who I’d be if it was easy? That’d suck.

Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
My company works with Christian actors to get them on professional sets for the purpose of helping them walk in their calling and passion while also bringing more hope and more Christ onto sets that really need that. The way we do that is by sitting with the actor, figuring out what their most cast-able types are, what their dream roles are, and then crafting custom scenes around those types that highlight their talent and frame them as the lead. Instead of just sending a client through an assembly line, we work incredibly intentionally with them, put together a full crew with co-stars, and create a full production so that the product actually looks like it came from a professionally produced project and not like it was specifically for their demo reel.
I’m most proud of our brand for doing what we say we want our clients to do. We just got done with a shoot where the co-stars we brought on talked about how much more different our set was from any other set they had been on. They talked about the culture and the tangible joy they felt and had while on set. I also got this opportunity a couple months back to have such a beautiful conversation with a lesbian woman who was so deeply hurt by the church. I just wept with her and apologized on behalf of the church, that she was treated the way she was, and that they did not represent how the Lord sees her or what He thinks of her. We cried together and it was a beautiful moment. And at the end of the day, that’s the goal. I have no idea what her future holds but I know I imparted God’s heart to her and she experienced it. What He does with that is His. And that’s our goal with getting Christian actors on professional sets. Just bring God’s heart on set with you and let Him do the rest.
Our company isn’t about just collecting a paycheck and sending you on your way. We want to invest in Christian actors and actually see them succeed. So we spend a massive amount of time strategizing for our clients and shooting these projects just like our indie work. Right now, we just launched our group rates which cuts down on cost for the client by over 50% for the sole purpose of making this available to more actors. We truly want to see them succeed.

Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
Taking risk is a necessity in life and it’s something that is made to feel like a big deal in this day and age. In western culture, we’ve been conditioned that being comfortable and having every convenience is the norm when in reality we were never meant to live like that. When you take risk, your heart pounds, you get that little tingling sensation in your head, and you step into the unknown and into faith and you actually live. And when you pursue comfort and convenience, everything is easy, there’s no sense of accomplishment or purpose. No wonder depression and anxiety run rampant.
So yes, I’ve risked a bunch in my life. I risked dropping out of college even though I had 90% off to go to school and went to go work for peanuts at a camp. My whole life was thrown up in the air with that decision. On my second day there, I met my wife and she brought me through so much healing and the Lord partnered with her to remind me who I was. I risked leaving my life behind to go to Generation 42 Leadership Academy in Spain because I was at a crossroads where I believed that there had to be more to life and more to God than what I was experiencing. It was there that my entire foundation that was built on religion was torn down and replaced with relationship after actually having experienced God. And it was there that He brought back this passion of filmmaking and began to marry my two passions of imparting God’s heart and telling stories through film.
Your freedom is on the other side of the thing you’re afraid to do. So you have to take risk.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.liminalitymedia.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/liminality_media
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jackson.cummings.filmmaker
• Youtube: https://www.YouTube.com/@LiminalityMedia

Image Credits
Caleb Bosman, Adam Crampsey, Clementine Clarke, Elizabeth Cummings, John Grayson, Christopher De La Rosa